Fables of Fódlan
by katlizhan
Summary: A series of one-shots inspired by various songs. We begin with a truce between Edelgard and Dimitri, where they share confessions and remember a time long gone. All set in the world of Fódlan.


**Red Water Dreams**

**_Inspired by the song by Aviators_**

The River of Blood. That was where Emperor Edelgard had agreed to meet the King of Faerghus, ignoring the counsel of her most trusted advisor and despite her own doubts. A trap, Hubert had called it. A ploy to lure her out, alone, and strike her while she was defenceless. His concerns were understandable- she was the Emperor, and Dimitri was the enemy. But she knew the Tempest King... _used_ to know him. He would not be so cowardly, so dishonourable. _Why, then,__ do I feel such unease?_ Edelgard shook away her worries, staring across the still waters. The sunset bathed its surface in a deep orange, burning like the fires that blazed a thousand leagues away. It had not always been called the River of Blood, she remembered. In fact, it used to bear no name at all. Since the war had begun, desperate souls, deprived and desolate, came to the river for salvation. An early death. An escape from the bloodshed. And so, the river had been named.

Light footfalls turned her gaze to the bridge across from her. "I was starting to think that you would not come." Her voice was blank.

"Nor did I expect you to show." Dimitri trudged through the mud, stopping a few feet away from her. A safe distance. He looked somehow different than last she saw him, his hair no longer an oily tangle, his expression not one of contempt, but of... _peace_, she supposed. It envied her.

"Well, here I am." Edelgard straightened her back, a hand lingering near the dagger concealed within her belt.

"Indeed." His voice was cold as the winds of Faerghus. As far as she could see, he carried no weapons. _Appearances are deceiving,_ _as is my own._

Edelgard paced closer to the riverbank. "You came alone?"

"Did you?" he returned.

She breathed an empty laugh. "What is the purpose of this, if we cannot trust each other? What do you hope to gain? Our armies fight as we speak- our men are dying. The streets run red with the blood of our innocents." She looked to him, brow knitted tightly. "So, I ask you again. Why are you here? To kill me?"

He sighed, hollow and exhausted. "No, El. I am here for a chance at peace. To negotiate."

Anger flashed through her. "Do not call me by that name. We are no longer children. I am Emperor, and you are my enemy."

"Fine, then. Edelgard." He studied her with his one remaining eye. "Do you truly hold no feelings for me, no fondness for a time long past?" Dimitri took a step closer, and she took one back. The betrayal on his face hurt, but she could not trust him.

She tried to keep her voice steady. "As you say, it is in the past. We cannot go back." She cursed her mind for wandering back to those three years of exile- cursed _him_. To her happiest years, with him and the snow. An illusion of joy. _There is no joy left for me in this world._

"That we cannot. Yet every day I wish that we could." His eyes wandered to where her hand still lingered. "Do you remember the day I gave you that dagger?"

Edelgard gasped despite herself, hand falling from her belt. "How did you...?" Of course he knew. _He knows me better than I know myself._

Dimitri laughed. "You were twelve years old, still so innocent and carefree." His expression turned into one of sorrow. "Before Duscur. Before your torture." He gestured a hand around him. "Before all of this."

"I remember. I... I miss those days, too. But you must understand that I have no other choice. The Church must pay for their crimes, Fódlan _must_ be liberated from the control of Crests." Her voice was passionate, full of the belief she held for her cause. She paused, chest heaving from the weight of her words. "I am to be their saviour."

Dimitri shook his head. "At what cost? How many lives must be lost to achieve your ambitions?" His voice was low, almost a growl.

"As many as it takes." The words rang through the air like steel on stone. She padded over to him, feet squelching the mud beneath her, and reached up to take his cheek in her hand. Her voice turned to a whisper. "Give up your resistance, Dimitri. _Help_ me. Together we can take down the false god and her army of puppet pretenders."

He pulled away, eye downcast. "No, Edelgard. I cannot allow any more suffering. Surrender and I will grant you clemency. You have my word." He reached for her, but she recoiled.

"I may have your word," she said bitterly, "but you know as well as I that the Immaculate One will not allow me to live. It is too late, Dimitri." _It is too late for all of us_. Their pleas would go nowhere- they would never accept each other's beliefs. He knew it too.

Dimitri kept silent a moment, eye watching the river lap against the bank, its waters calm as the souls that slept within its bed. "Do you hear them?" he asked, barely audible over the rustle of the trees. "The souls of the lost. Those condemned to an early grave. Listen."

She listened, straining to hear. No voices. Only the whisper of the wind through leaves, the trickling of water. "I hear nothing."

"They used to ask me for your head- _crave_ for it." He did not look at her, and Edelgard wondered whether he was talking to her at all. "Now all they ask is for it all to end. An end to the suffering of those still living." His gaze flicked to her, the intensity of his stare making her feel vulnerable. "They do not blame you, El... _I_ do not blame you." His next words struck her most._ "I forgive you."_

Edelgard tried to stay strong, to keep her steel exterior. But his words weakened her, a hot tear falling from her eye, splashing into the mud. Her mind was clouded with a fog, and all she could do was stand and say nothing. At last, she spoke, her voice cracked with grief. "I did not want it to be this way, Dimitri. But I cannot surrender."

"I know. Sit with me," he whispered. She blinked at him, bemused, not registering his request. "Come, El." He took her hand in his and led her over to a patch of grass beneath a birch tree, its trunk as white as her hair. Dimitri sat first, lifting his thick fur cloak so as not to sit on it. He patted the space next to him, a faint smile on his lips. Edelgard pushed back the thoughts of war, of death, of him being her enemy, and took the seat beside him. For now, in their brief truce, they were together as they were over a decade ago. As friends. Siblings.

Edelgard leaned into the crook of his arm, watching as the world darkened around them. "What if we were to stay here?" she asked almost to herself. "Hubert would worry. No doubt he would tear apart every corner of Fódlan to find me." The thought made her smile, to know that there was someone who cared that much for her. Hubert had been by her side since she was four years old; they were inseparable.

"He loves you," Dimitri said, fingers brushing through the loose strands of her hair.

"He does. He told me as much, not so long ago." At the time, Hubert's confession had caught her off guard, but somehow she always knew it to be true.

Dimitri lifted her chin, eye searching hers. "Do you love him?"

"I..." Edelgard gaped at him, feeling a blush creep over her. The thought had not occurred to her, not with the war occupying most of her time. She pictured him in her mind; his dark hair, the usual unsettling stare that softened when they were alone. And how his lips would curl in the rare moments she laughed. Her heart swelled. "As ever, you see right through me. I suppose, in a way... Yes, yes I do." She laughed at her revelation. "What of you and the professor?" The question came before she could stop it.

Dimitri smiled, one that she recognised. Hubert often wore the same. "Byleth and I are in love, yes. We're keeping it hidden, for now at least. I plan to ask for her hand once the war is done." His smile spread, and Edelgard could not help but smile too. _Once the war is done..._ Her smile faded.

"I am happy for you, Dimitri. Truly." She looked to the stars, a million blazing lights so far away and unaware of the destruction beneath them. "When the time should come, after we have returned to our loves and must face each other on the field of battle... you will not hold back?"

"I will not. And you?"

Edelgard looked to him, the sight of his face forming a lump in her throat. She swallowed it down. "I will not," she echoed. That day would come- was _fated_ to come- she knew that to be true. And one of them would have to die. Yet, she said, "Let us stay a while longer." As if she could delay fate, delay the grief of those they loved. Of Hubert, and Byleth.

Dimitri pulled her into his embrace, stroking her hair the way he did when they were young. "You must tell him, before it is too late," he murmured, as if he could read her thoughts.

"I promise." Edelgard closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of him. The smell of Faerghus, of the soft fallen snow they used to make snowmen. Ginger and spice of the cookies they would sneak from the kitchens into his chambers, and eat beside the crackling fire within the hearth. And of fallen rain, of ash and dirt and the fire of war. She listened to his steady breathing, the heart beating in his chest, and drifted into sleep, the sound of child's laughter playing in her mind.

One of them would have to die. _But not today._

* * *

**_A/N~ So I was listening to 'Red Water Dreams' and got the idea for this story. Then, it occurred to me that I could make a series of one-shots, all inspired by songs! They will all be posted as chapters within this fic, a few being linked and others not, length varying between 1-3k words each._**

**_Additionally_****_, the titles will all be the names of the song, so credit for them goes to the artists which will be stated beneath each title._**

**_If_****_ you'd like to see more then please do leave a follow or review- they're always appreciated and keep me going. Thank you for reading!_**


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